WiP Wednesday and Some Context

I tend not to share too too much of my personal life; here or on Instagram (I'm seriously so active over there, and I love having more people to follow!!), but things here aren't so rosy. I feel like it's important to mention, because crafting has a huge amount of artistry to it, and I've learned through various art classes about how important the artist's point of view is to the finished product. Looking at something with no context can be alienating, or confusing, but when you know who the artist was, and what their vision was, it becomes clear and has more resonance (Duchamp's Fountain is always cited as a big example of this, if you're curious). Anyway, all this just means that I feel knowing my situation right now will put my current work into context.

Thank you block made in my "blog colors" ♥

Basically, it's been a much different summer than I thought it would be - my husband lost his job right at the beginning of June, and he's starting his first day at a new job today. We had planned to visit his family in Nebraska, at least, as well as a trip to San Diego & Disneyland, maybe even visiting my family up in northern CA...well, instead we've been staying at home, going to the library, lots of Netflix, and I've been crafting, crafting, crafting.

Currently binding this!! I love carrying it around the house with me.

It's by no means a bad thing; in fact, it's exactly how we spent last summer, so at this point it's old hat. The stress never really goes away with financial difficulty hanging over you, though, and that wears on me. It's been a year of bad luck! I'm so grateful that I was inspired to pick up sewing again, I don't know how I would've gotten by for the past few months without it to distract me.

Some of my fabric choices/buys recently

I like looking somewhat critically at my creative process, because I like seeing my usual tendencies and then being surprised by some of the choices that I make. It's nice to surprise yourself sometimes! Anyway, I've thought often over the past few months that I love pink, but I don't use it as much as I would've expected myself to. I partially blamed my fabric stash for not being diverse enough, but that's definitely not an excuse anymore!! I've bought a lot of pink recently, which seems natural considering how stressed and worried and unstable things have been here; it's a color that gives me so much peace. Do you have a color that does that? I think how cute the color pink is to me makes it feel like everything's going to be okay. There's still cute things! It's all right! Haha ♥

Pink Lone Star!

I've recently started acting pretty impulsively off of inspirations (which feels great, btw!) and this is the project that started it - a lone star!! It's been, quite honestly, hellish to put together so far; I've hated every part of the process, but I love all the fabrics and I love how pink and cheery it is. I haven't decided on a bg fabric for it yet, but once I do, this thing is going straight up on my wall! I used this Better Off Thread tutorial to make it, and Aneela Hoey's lone star was my direct (and unignorable!) inspiration for putting it together. Once it's done, I'll make a post about it...I had to change so many measurements from the tutorial to make it work!

Marcelle Medallion!!

I've been wanting to start this Marcelle Medallion business ever since I first saw a glimpse of it...how can you not?? I haven't seen any other border quilts I've been quite as taken by ♥ I paper pieced the center medallion, and am currently having a battle with cornerstone borders. Does anyone have any tricks for getting them super precise?? I was considering sewing them almost like binding, so I can make the second corner align perfectly (does that make sense?). I'm currently putting off cutting out 70+ 2.5" triangles...haha...ha... Tedious work aside, I adore how this looks so far. It's just what I wanted it to look like, when I didn't even know which fabrics I'd be using. I just knew I wanted to feature pink in the center heavily; I've noticed on the finished quilts that the center dictates the tone of the rest of the quilt. I definitely want a pink theme throughout!!

Just realized how many WIP's I have in this post...better link up to WiP Wednesday!

Thanks for sticking around for my rambling - I know it's a bit self-indulgent, but I think having a blog in the first place is a bit self-indulgent, so it's all okay in the end ♥ I hope providing some context helped you to view my current projects in a slightly different way c: Have a great Wednesday!!

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comments:

Glad to hear you are coping with life by way of the craft, Gwendellyn. I tend to gravitate towards using blue, a calming colour. I think creating helps us to keep a bright outlook, no matter the colour. Thanks for sharing the story, or context, of your sweet triangle block. I am certain it will bring joy when viewed by it's recipient!

Life can be so challenging to slog through sometimes but how wonderful to be able to channel all that through sewing! When I'm stressed, all I want to do is hop on my sewing machine and forget "real life" for an hour :) I hope that your husband enjoys this new chapter!

Your WIPs are so lovely and I would not have guessed that you and your family are facing some tough challenges because everything is so beautiful and cheery. I hope things so well for you hubby in his new job, things will get better and I'm glad that quilting is giving you aome solace :). ::hugs::

I hate to hear that you've had a stressful summer. We were in a similar situation a couple of years ago and ended up having to move halfway across the country, so I completely empathize. I'm glad that sewing has been a refuge. It is for me too.

Sometimes it helps to write about our troubles and our hopes. Gets us through the tough times. You are not alone many of us out here are facing simular situations and our blogs, sewing and encouragement of others get us through! I like orange right now, not sure why.